Analysis Of The Gradualism Movement

American politics from the years of 1800 to 1860 was strongly focused on the growing issue of slavery as more and more Americans were moving out west. There was much controversy about what the right action plan for slavery was. This resulted in three different Anti-Slavery movements including Gradualism, Colonization, and Abolition.

Gradualism is defined as a policy of gradual reform rather than sudden revolution. The Gradualism Movement was the first attempt by parts of the U.S (mostly northern states) to abolish slavery. The act was passed by the Pennsylvania legislator in March 1780. This plan for ending slavery was supported by the Quakers in the northern states, however not supported by southern states because slavery was a large
This is why it was not very successful. Abolitionists, who wanted rapid freeing of all enslaved people, opposed this movement because it did not do much for slaves who were enslaved before the law passed. Overall, Gradualism eventually failed due to its many limitations within the law.

Colonization was another attempt to abolish slavery. In 1816, Francis Scott Key, Chief Justice John Marshall, Henry Clay, President James Monroe, Andrew Jackson and others formed The American Colonization Society (ACS). They created it out of the fear that free blacks would not be able to integrate themselves successfully into American society, and because of the fact that racism was an issue at the time. The ACS were major supporters of colonization, and eventually gained thousands of supporters in the U.S. The main goal of the ACS was to send and colonize free blacks into the new colony of Liberia, the Caribbean, or into Haiti
The main goal of the movement was to immediately emancipate all slaves, in the U.S. as soon as possible. Abolitionists believed that slavery was a sin, and often took an aggressive approach to promote their cause. Some key leaders of the Abolition movement included Harriet Beecher Stowe, who wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin, (a popular book that detailed the horrors of slavery) William Lloyd Garrison, who wrote an anti-slavery newspaper (The Liberator), Harriet Tubman, a famous escaped slave who made 19 trips back to the south and rescued over 300 slaves through the Underground Railroad, and Frederick Douglass, another escaped slave who worked the political system to help promote the end of slavery. This powerful movement had many major events, and was one of the causes of the Civil War. For example, one major event was John Brown’s raid in Harper’s Ferry, Virginia on October 16th, 1859. John Brown lead a group of abolitionists to raid a U.S arsenal and start an armed slave revolt. By October 17th, a day later, Brown’s group was surrounded by the local militia, and soon later the U.S Marines, and was defeated after ten casualties to his group. This event scared southern slave owners greatly, and made them fearful of more slave revolts, due to this aggressive, violent anti-slavery event. After two failed anti-slavery movements, Abolition was finally successful in the sense that it helped lead up to the Civil War.